I love black and white film photography. It is the peg where I have hung my photographic hat. Begrudgingly I have entered the digital world, now scanning my negatives for posting on the net, and yes, my most recent published articles were illustrated with photos not taken from prints, but scans.
The days of hours being spent in the darkroom trying to produce publishable scans are over for me. I still like the smell of the chemicals and watching under the glow of the safe lights a blank sheet of paper turn into a memory, but there is the practical issue of what publishers actually want. Scans they want, so scans they get.
My secret life, however is not my turning to the digital world to produce images. No, it is far more disturbing. All the while I have been vocally touting the glories of black and white negative photography, I've been shooting color slides.
I have always "justified" this double standard with the weak excuse that my "serious" photography was always done in black and white. And true, these days I very seldom do shoot a scene in color, still, the evidence is all around me in slide trays and plastic sheets. Color photos taken of serious subjects, not just family vacations.
My hobby is rail photography, shot in black and white. My business is farming, and that I have shot in color. I still believe I am a far better monochrome photographer than "Kodachrome", but here are a few taken over the years. All are with a 5 mile radius of where I live.
Lucky me........
The view ahead.....
....... and the view behind.
Turning the good earth...plowing down ground that has been limed.
I live in Skagit County in northwestern Washington State. Our is one of the last areas west of the Cascades where agriculture is still a dominate industry. But it is fading fast. As population increases so does the pressure on land use. It is far more profitable to farm houses than cows.
Combining spinach seed.
Spouted freezer peas.
The amber waves of grain.
Sunset in God's Country
No comments:
Post a Comment